Singapore just played against Japan. How I wished it was videogames they played, but no – soccer it was. And we lost 2 to 1, which is pretty good, according to soccer enthusiasts (I still can’t grasp the concept of ‘Offside’).
The match was played at the Jalan Besar stadium. Thousands bought tickets, Singaporean and Japanese alike. Thousands more watched the live telecast on TV. Yet thousands more would have caught the prestigious event live, if the National Stadium was not booked for the night.
I was in the lurch, for I do not understand the beauty of watching 22 sweat-suffused men chase after a ball as if it was their girlfriend, when there were tons of curvacious ladies who would gleefully giggle if they could score a date with these men.
Instead, I spent my evening playing Rez (PS2) while a bunch of soccer fans swat flies in Jalan Besar. Nobody was around sharing a bag of slightly pee-flavoured (someone probably doesn’t wash his hands) peanuts with me. Nobody pulled my shirt up and over my head when I defeated one boss after another.
Gaming is not a solitary hobby. If anything, some of our foreign counterparts in Japan, Korea and America can prove that. Even a game like Rez doesn’t necessarily warrant a solo play session. And that’s only the tip of the ice berg. There are the 16-player LAN Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Halo, or Crimson Skies gaming fests. There are the 4-player Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Mario Party, and Everquest: Champions of Norrath sessions. Then there are the online addictions – you know what they are.
Bottomline: gaming is just not as hot in Singapore as it should be.
Need more proof? I don’t think you do, but hey, I’ve got something ridiculous on hand and I’m not going to hold back.
In Japan, they have Dengeki and Famitsu. In US, EGM and GamePro. What do we have here in Singapore? Playworks, GameAxis, and a little Sony Singapore sponsored, PS2 publication known as GAX (according to Doumyouji, the letters ‘G’, ‘A’, and ‘X’ are formed with the famous Playstation ‘O’, triangle, and ‘X’. Ho hum, imagine what it would have been like if the Playstation controller had a ‘Y’ button instead of an ‘X’ button).
You know gaming must be really, really unpopular in Singapore if GameAxis thinks that they can get away with a game review done by someone who doesn’t even understand the language of the text-intensive game he’s reviewing. People review Japanese games all the time, without understanding the language at all. That’s fine, especially if the game could be enjoyed even without understanding the text. However, Braveknight here has Chinese subtitles, and there are going to be a lot of Chinese-literate Singaporeans who are going to be dissatisfied with the review they’ve just read.
Thank you, Santos, for giving me a whole ton of information about Braveknight that I could have already guessed from looking at the front and back covers of the game casing, and maybe some screenshots.
But hey, at least GameAxis and Santos assumes that you’re a Singaporean, not a Japanese, unlike GAX (the PS2 publication I was talking about). Every single issue of GAX covers new PS2 games in some detail. The problem is, these new PS2 games must be ASIAN RELEASES. In other words, 80 percent of the games GAX cover are TOTALLY IN JAPANESE.
Amazingly, GAX still get mail, which they publish, claiming that they’re a great read. ‘Thanks GAX, for giving us the dossier on Wild Arms 3 (at that time a Japanese text-intensive RPG, with a US version soon to come).’ Riigghht.. so someone out there is encouraging GAX to think that we naturally know Japanese. I don’t know if I should admire his patience, or pity his foolishness, assuming that he was a normal Singaporean who could not take Japanese as a second/third language.
Oh well, at least there’s still hope for the gaming scene in Singapore, what with the hobby getting more mainstream these days. Here’s hoping that we receive more relevant media coverage of our wondrous hobby.
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Did’ja know.. you probably do, about how being a lawfully good PS2 gamer in Singapore can be pretty tough and expensive. Assuming that a goodie-two-shoes gamer does not know Japanese, and intends to buy a PS2. First of all, as much as he’s inclined to buy a parallel imported set, he reads that they are illegal (so why is it that shops everywhere are still parallel importing?) and may, in the worst case, burst into flames. Next, he may be considering to modify that Asian PS2 he just bought. Howeer, modding is ‘illegal’. And so he takes Japanese lessons.
Asian PS2 – $300+
Asian PS2 games – around $70 a pop
Japanese lessons – at least $2000
Internet access (so that you can access the all-important FAQs) – $60 a month
The ability to mail to GAX commenting that they are a good read, and thus mocking the rest of Singaporean gamers who don’t understand Japanese – priceless.
Okay, so it’s not so bad being a lawfully good gamer after all.
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